


Shiny Blue Tricycle

by VenusTheMarvelTurtle



Series: When I knew you Then (Monsters University) [1]
Category: Monsters University (2013)
Genre: AU, Childhood Friends, Cute Randall, First Meetings, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, I Will Go Down With This Ship, M/M, Pre MU, Pre-Canon, Pre-Slash, little monsters - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-23
Updated: 2015-03-23
Packaged: 2018-03-19 04:34:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,507
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3596538
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VenusTheMarvelTurtle/pseuds/VenusTheMarvelTurtle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Randy met James P. Sullivan, it was all because of a shiny blue tricycle, two knocked out milk teeth, and a broken arm.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Shiny Blue Tricycle

**Author's Note:**

> First Slash story! Well, slightly slashy if you squint. Set when Sulley and Randy are both five, and go to the same preschool. I think I'm going to make a series out of this. Somehow I got sucked into this pairing, I don't even know.  
> Please Review and tell me what you think, if it's a good start or not.

The first time Randall Boggs saw James P. Sullivan, it was all because of a shiny blue tricycle, two knocked out milk teeth, and broken arm.

Little Growler’s preschool was not overly prestigious, large, or expensive, but it was one of Monstropolis’s highest rated daycares, known for being friendly and attentive.

As attentive as they could be, at least, with a child that could disappear at will. And five year old Randy wasn’t quite ready for a nap, thank you very much, Miss Needles.

As soon as the motherly matron monster put him down on his cot, he waited until her back was turned and squeezed his eyes shut, thinking _hard hard hard_ until he felt the itchy ripple spread over his scales.

He wasn’t as good as Mommy and Daddy and Aggie with his special trick yet (he could only do a few colors, and only for a small amount of time) but Mommy said it was really good that he could do even that much to be so little. Aggie hadn’t started changing color until she was eight, and she couldn’t be _nothing_ as fast as he could.

He didn’t know how to explain it when it happened. Sometimes it was an accident, and sometimes he just wanted to _feel_ like a different color.

Red _felt_ like red, orange _felt_ like orange, and green _felt_ like green.

But he was better at _feeling_ like _nothing_ than he was at _feeling colorful._

Randy did like blue, though. Blue was his favorite color, like the new, shiny sky blue tricycle out on the playground that none of the other kids had ridden yet, and it was calling his name.

None of the teachers, busy with putting down the other sugar crazed monsterlings, noticed the shifting of his blankets as Randy snuck out of his blankets and out the door to the playground.

It wasn’t empty anymore- the other class had come outside for their recess, but he didn’t care; he was going to ride that shiny tricycle, just for a little while, and then he’d go back in and take a nap like a good little boy.

He let himself feel like something again and made a beeline for the edge of the playground, and there it was, gleaming in the sun, pretty and blue with perfect black wheels and purple tassels hanging from the handlebars.

He jumped on it, grinning with a mouthful of small sharp teeth, coiling his tail around the seat and pushing the pedals down with his bottom legs, holding the handlebars with his wide chin and his top two arms. It wasn’t perfect or easy, but he was riding, zooming around with his fronds waving in the air and feeling like a gazillion dollars, giggling and flashing colors like a rainbow stoplight in his happiness.

“WATCH OUT!!!”

He didn’t see the other bike until it was too late, and he was flying tail over heels off the tricycle and into the grass, landing with a cry and a sickening, cracking CRUNCH on his second left elbow. Randy immediately began to cry, both from the nasty pain radiating through his arm and the sorry state of his tricycle, laying twisted and dirty on the ground next to an equally wrecked red one. His scales turned a dull, smoky black and he curled in on himself, sobbing.

“Are you okay?”

Randy glanced up and saw another monster his age running towards him. He shrank away- the other kid was much bigger than him, covered in fur the same color as his tricycle and dotted with purple spots. His short claws dug little trenches in the ground as he ran, and two little horns nubs stuck up out of his fuzz.

He looked funny, too big and too small for himself all at once. His back was bowed a little, making his arms drag against the ground, and his fangs hung out of his jaw, giving him an underbite. Spots of blood stained his pelt from where it dribbled from his gum and split lip.

 “Y-you h-hit me,” Randy sniffed accusingly, glaring at him.

The other boy scratched at his arm, and the sound was annoying, like sand paper. “Nu-uh, you hit me,” he said.

“Nu-uh, stupid, y-you hit me!”

“I’m not stupid! You’re stupid!”

“You LOOK stupid!”

“Nu-uh, your mommy looks stupid!”

“Yeah, well your DADDY’S stupid!”

“My daddy is the biggest, meanest, scariest monster ever!” the other boy shouted. “He’ll beat you stupid Daddy up!”

“T-take that b-back you stupid liar!”

“I- _whoooaa_ ,” the other boy cut off, staring wide eyed at Randy as his scales pricked and shifted with his anger. “You can change colors?”

Randy blushed all over, quickly going from an ugly dark green to a faint pinkish red. “Y-yeah…” It happened like that sometimes, when he didn't know it. 

He braced himself for the weird look and the teasing, and the laughter, but it never came.

“That’s so cool!” the other monster exclaimed loudly, forgetting the argument. Randy jumped and blushed harder. “Y-you r-really think so?”

“Yeah! Hey, what’s your name?”

“R-Randall Boggs. B-but my sister calls me Randy,” he stammered, trying to see of the other kid was lying about thinking his trick was cool. No one else did, except for when they were stepping on his tail in line just to get him to squeal and change colors.

Apparently, he wasn’t.

“My name’s James P. Sullivan,” he said, puffing up his stocky chest proudly. “But everybody calls me Jimmy.”

“S-Sullivan?” Randy echoed quietly. Everybody knew about the Sullivans. They were practically celebrities, like movie stars. He had Bill Sullivan’s Scarer Card in the pack Aggie gave him for his last birthday, and a poster of him on his bedroom wall.

“Yeah,” Jimmy said confidently, grinning at the awed look on Randy’s face. Randy blanched to a pasty white color as he imagined the picture of Jimmy’s dad staring down at him from over his bed- a huge, hulking, muscular monster, jaw bristling with fangs and huge paws with inch long claws that could swallow him down in seconds- who he’d just called stupid. A bunch of times.

Jeez Louise.

“I-I’m s-s-sorry,” Randy gasped, tucking his injured arm closer to his body, terrified that the bigger boy was really going to tell his daddy. “I-I didn’t mean to…I-I mean I…”

“It’s okay,” Jimmy nodded easily, sitting criss cross next to him. “I’m sorry that I hit you with my bike.”

“I-it’s okay.” Randy mumbled.

And just like that, it was over, and everyone was forgiven for any hurts or faults. 

By now, the teachers had noticed his absence and rushed out to the playground, and it wasn’t hard to spot the both of them among the wreckage of the tricycle accident, especially with Jimmy’s mismatched bulk directly next to him.

“Hey, Randy?”

“Yeah?”

“You wanna play with me tomorrow?”

Randy blinked and stared at the bigger boy in shock, rubbing his eyes with one of his good arms. None of the other kids went out of their way to play with him. But looking at him, Randy could feel the same _something_ welling up in his chest, almost like the _something_ that changed his skin, but not quite.

It was a warm _something_ , hopeful and nice, and it made his scales prickle, but not in the same way as before.

He couldn’t say no, could he? Jimmy was the first person to ever be really nice to him…it wouldn’t be nice to say no, right?

He might never talk to him again if he said no. Mommy always said be polite, and besides, he didn't want Jimmy to hit him or something for being rude.

Plus, the way Jimmy said it, it didn't really sound like a question. He was more like telling him that they would play, but for some reason Randy didn't mind.

“Um…s-sure. Okay.”

Jimmy smiled, showing off his underbite to the fullest extent, and Randy thought that it maybe wasn't as obvious or ugly as he first thought, and by then the teachers were upon them, squawking about the ruined bikes and whisking Randy away to the nurse’s office.

He looked back over Miss Needle's shoulder in time to see Jimmy lift a big mitt and wave at him.

In the end, he had to wear a cast on his arm for three weeks, and two of Jimmy’s milk teeth were knocked out in the crash, (but it was okay, because Jimmy wanted them to come out anyway so his big monster fangs could come in) and Randy was all smiles when he went home to tell his parents and his sister that he’d made a new friend.

With a Sullivan, no less. They seemed really, really happy after he told them Jimmy's last name.

They played together every day after that, but they never rode the tricycles again. The blue paint was never as pretty to Randy as Jimmy's fur was.

To him, that was a color all its own.

**Author's Note:**

> There's a few headcanons here, one where Randy has a sister named Aggie, and another where Sulley was unattractive as a child, but gets hotter as he grows into his body- which Randy notices, of course.  
> Also, I see Sulley's father as SLIGHTLY abusive, so that might become a theme in a later story.
> 
> ALSO, this has been edited to remove the mention of Randy having glasses. I wanted to make that into another story, so he gets them later.


End file.
